Reflecting on reflexive thematic analysis

Braun, Virginia; Clarke, Victoria

Abstract

Since initially writing on thematic analysis in 2006, the popularity of the method we outlined has exploded, the variety of TA approaches have expanded, and, not least, our thinking has developed and shifted. In this reflexive commentary, we look back at some of the unspoken assumptions that informed how we wrote our 2006 paper. We connect some of these un-identified assumptions, and developments in the method over the years, with some conceptual mismatches and confusions we see in published TA studies. In order to facilitate better TA practice, we reflect on how our thinking has evolved – and in some cases sedimented – since the publication of our 2006 paper, and clarify and revise some of the ways we phrased or conceptualised TA, and the elements of, and processes around, a method we now prefer to call reflexive TA.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 4, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Jun 13, 2019
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Jun 11, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 14, 2020
• Journal: Qualitative Research in Sport, Exercise and Health
• Print ISSN: 2159-676X
• Electronic ISSN: 2159-6778
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 589-597
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2019.1628806
• Keywords: Big Q qualitative, coding, data domains, epistemology, ontology, paradigm, post-positivism, reflexivity, Small Q qualitative, themes, epistemology
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1493232
• Contract Date: Jun 11, 2019